Day 4:Spiced Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake

During Christmas our family tries to go as English as we can. It’s really a time set apart where we try to have food and do things C might do in England during the holidays. One of our all-time favorite desserts is sticky toffee pudding. It is AMAZING. I highly recommend seeking it out to try it OR you can try this bundt cake recipe.

This is my homage to the sticky toffee pudding. It’s not exactly the same, but it has all my favorite parts of the sticky toffee pudding along with some extra goodies like ginger.

My Spiced Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake is just what you need in your life to get feeling festive without going for the usual American flavors of chocolate, mint etc. There’s toffee sauce, there’s ginger and there’s Bundt pans which are just all kinds of fun. I recommend eating this cake the day of preparation to get the best effect.

Spiced Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1/ 2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

6oz pitted dates

3/ 4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 1/ 2 tsp baking powder

1/ 2 tsp salt

1/ 2 tsp cinnamon

1/ 2 tsp ground ginger

1/ 2 tsp fresh grated ginger (about 1/ 2 inch piece)

For the toffee sauce:

1/ 2 cup unsalted butter

3/ 4 cup brown sugar

1/ 4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Pinch salt (preferably sea salt)

Method:

For the cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Thoroughly grease your bundt pan and flour it, pouring flour on to the greased pan and tapping/moving the pan to get flour distributed on all parts of the pan. Tap any excess flour out into a sink, trash bin etc.

2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the sugars and butter with an electric mixer on medium until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula

3. Place the dates in a food processor and run the processor until the dates are ground very fine.

4. Put dates and the other wet ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture and mix on low until it appears to be uniformly distributed. The mix will look lumpy or split, but that’s fine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

5. Add the remaining cake ingredients and mix on low until combined. It will be a thick cake batter.

6. Distribute the cake batter evenly in the bundt pan and use your spatula to make the top level. Tap the pan on your countertop a few times to make sure the cake settles into all the nooks and crannies of the cake pan.

7. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, until you push on the cake and it springs back, and a tester comes out clean.

8. Let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes and then flip the cake out, onto a plate. Serve the cake with toffee sauce drizzled on top of the cake and on top of individual slices to allow for the sauce to soak in and create a pudding effect.

For the sauce:

1. Put butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan and set on the hob at medium heat. Stir frequently.

2. Once the butter has melted stir the mixture constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the butter and sugar are homogenous. The mixture should bubble a bit and that’s fine.

3. Once the butter and sugar are incorporated, add the buttermilk, vanilla and salt and stir to combine.

4. Store in a glass jar until needed. This sauce can stay in the fridge for about a week, but I would suggest putting it on the cake when it’s warm for the best effect.